معرفی
Benjamin Peter serves as Associate Professor at Université Sainte-Anne in Nova Scotia, Canada, and as research assistant/habilitand at the Department of Romance Philology at Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Germany. Starting in the winter semester 2025/26, he will assume the position of Acting Professor for Romance Linguistics and Cultural Studies at Leibniz University Hannover. His academic affiliations include membership in the German Association of Romance Language Studies (DRV), German Hispanist Association (DHV), Society for Canadian Studies (GKS), and The Canadian-Française Association for the Advancement of Sciences (l'Acfas).
- Ph.D. in Romance Philology (2018, University of Kiel, summa cum laude)
- Master of Arts in Romance Studies (Spanish/French) and English Studies (2011-2012, Ruhr University Bochum)
- Bachelor of Arts in Romance Studies (Spanish/French) and English Studies (2006-2011, Ruhr University Bochum)
Dr. Peter's research focuses on linguistic anthropology, cognitive grammar, and discourse analysis of language variation, with particular expertise in French and Spanish varieties across different regions. His work examines language contact phenomena, glottopolitics, and the social semiotization of language in contexts including Acadia, Quebec, Andalusia, and Catalonia. His research methodology combines cognitive linguistic approaches with anthropological perspectives to analyze how linguistic practices shape and are shaped by social contexts.
His recent publications demonstrate a consistent focus on discourse-pragmatic change, particularly examining past tenses in Acadian French and the discursive construction of linguistic varieties. The publications reveal a methodological trend combining empirical cognitive linguistics with discourse analysis, focusing on the interplay between linguistic structures and social meaning. His work spans theoretical contributions to enregisterment theory while maintaining practical applications for understanding language variation in specific cultural contexts.
- Werner Krauss Prize of the German Association of Hispanists for the dissertation (2019)
- Award for innovative, forward-looking teaching through the BMBF-funded project for successful teaching and learning (PerLe) (2019)
Dr. Peter actively supervises graduate students and has secured research funding through multiple projects. He co-leads the international research project 'Culture of Regional Multilingualism' involving researchers from Germany, France, Spain, Denmark, the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Venezuela. His current habilitation project 'Past tenses in discourse-pragmatic change' involves extensive fieldwork in Acadian communities and analysis of historical documents from archives in Shippagan, Moncton, Pointe-de-L'Église, Pubnico, Petit-de-Grat, and Miscouche. He has conducted multiple research stays in Acadia, Quebec, Andalusia, and Brittany, building collaborative networks across North America and Europe.
Dr. Peter coordinates the Corpus Acadien Diachronique (CorAcadieQue), a collection of historical data on Acadian French that will be gradually made available to other researchers. He has organized several international conferences, including the Online Conference 'Acabride: Langues et littératures acadiennes contemporaines' (2022) and the international conference 'Methods for Researching Regional Multilingualism' at Kiel University (2018).
